North Korea reopens investigation into fate of 12 Japanese kidnapped decades ago by communist agents

The barbecues are all fired up along the jetty and the beach is dotted with sunbathers. Divers plunge into the water in search of clams, which are dipped in hot sauce and eaten raw right there on the spot. Wonsan, a sleepy port on North Korea’s east coast, is gearing up for a busy summer and, if talks with Japan go as North Korea hopes, maybe a return to livelier days.

Opening the door just a crack to better relations, Pyongyang has set up a committee to reinvestigate the fates of a dozen Japanese citizens who Tokyo suspects were abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 80s. In return, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering easing a broad array of unilateral sanctions that have shut down virtually all trade and most contact between the countries.

It’s unclear how far North Korea is willing to go to satisfy Japan’s demands to resolve the abductions issue, which even more than the North’s nuclear program has galvanized Japanese public opinion against Pyongyang. Popular sentiment in North Korea against Japan – its former colonial ruler – is even more negative.

Envoys for the two sides met Tuesday in Beijing to discuss the new committee, and Abe is expected to announce his decision on the sanctions soon.

In Wonsan, a giant ferry that was once an important link between the countries mysteriously reappeared, dominating the view of the harbor, before talks began.

The Mangyongbong-92, a sleek white ship longer than a football field, was long the symbol of a once-massive flow of goods, people and cash between the countries. Its recent return suggests that Pyongyang wants to resume port calls, and start pulling in Japanese cash, as soon as possible, but there has been no official explanation. Like the proverbial 500-pound gorilla in the room, Wonsan residents are reluctant to even mention it.

Until the Mangyongbong-92 was banned in 2006, Wonsan was a bustling port of entry for Japanese capital.

The ferry was a crucial means for the ethnic Koreans in Japan to visit the North, often laden with gifts, supplies and cash for their relatives or friends, bringing a wide variety of products not normally available in the socialist state. In its peak years, the Mangyongbong-92 was believed to have transported hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods and cash to the North.

Tokyo says it is willing to reward Pyongyang if it comes clean on the abductions issue – including allowing North Korean ships to make port calls in some cases. But, fearing they will be criticized for breaking ranks with allies in Washington and Seoul, officials stress they will still abide by U.N.-backed sanctions on the North’s long-range missile and nuclear weapons tests. Pyongyang says it has no intention of giving up its nuclear program.

Japanese sanctions have taken a toll. According to Japan’s Foreign Ministry, two-way trade between Tokyo and Pyongyang amounted to more than $30 billion in 2003. It was almost completely eliminated by increasingly broad sanctions beginning in 2006. From 2010, there has been virtually no trade between the countries, which have no diplomatic relations.

Since the ban, the Mangyongbong-92 has been seen in use only when North Korea attempted to start a new tourism service bringing foreign visitors from Rason, on its border with China, down the coast to the scenic Mount Kumgang area.

Even a partial thaw could provide Pyongyang with a small but potentially meaningful boost for its recent efforts at promoting international tourism and, perhaps farther down the road, increased trade.

Wonsan has been singled out by North Korean authorities as a key area for its nationwide tourism push. North Korea’s giant Masik Pass ski resort, a signature construction project of leader Kim Jong Un that opened late last year, is nearby.

Although the overwhelming majority of tourists who visit North Korea are Chinese, Pyongyang hopes to entice visitors from all over the region to fuel its drive for much-needed foreign currency.

Selling tours to places like Wonsan to the average Japanese won’t be easy. Japanese officials have given mixed signals about whether the Mangyongbong-92 would be allowed back if sanctions are eased.

Most Korea-bound Japanese vacationers are much more likely to choose the amenities and shopping of the South, though there are about 550,000 ethnic Koreans in Japan, and many of them are at least to some degree sympathetic with the North.

Pro-Pyongyang Koreans in Japan say the ferry operations should be resumed for humanitarian purposes so families can visit relatives in the North and students in ethnic Korean schools can make class excursions. Supporters also say it will make other cultural exchanges more feasible.

A 13-year-old schoolgirl walking home after badminton practice. A 28-year-old restaurant employee sent by his boss to Vienna. A young couple on a date, driving to the beach to see the sunset. They are among at least 17 Japanese – possibly many more than that – who were abducted by North Korea more than three decades ago.

The apparent reasons included training agents in Japanese language and social norms, or stealing identities so the agents could masquerade as Japanese for espionage and terrorism aimed mainly at South Korea.

North Korea allowed five to return in 2002, but the fate of the others remains unclear.

The 12 who Japan says have never come back paint a picture of lives interrupted, as if in mid-sentence, and irrevocably changed. At least three were students in Europe who may have been lured to North Korea by Japanese left-wing radicals. Others were bundled into small boats on the Japanese coast to cross the water to North Korea.

Here are brief descriptions of the 12 missing people, based on information from the Japanese government and support groups for the families of the abductees:

MISSING: Yutaka Kume, security guard in Tokyo

AGE WHEN ABDUCTED: 52

HIS STORY: Disappeared on Sept. 19, 1977, after traveling to Japan’s west coast to meet an acquaintance who was actually a North Korean spy on a mission to abduct a single Japanese male aged between 45 and 50.

MISSING: Kyoko Matsumoto, office worker

AGE WHEN ABDUCTED: 29

HER STORY: Kidnapped on her way to knitting class in western Japan on Oct. 21, 1977. A neighbor spotted her with two men in the pine tree woods near the coast, about 200 meters (600 feet) from her home. The neighbor asked what they were doing, and one of the men punched him in the face. He fell down in pain and when he looked around, the others had disappeared, leaving behind only a sandal.

MISSING: Megumi Yokota, student

AGE WHEN ABDUCTED: 13

HER STORY: The symbol of Japan’s abduction victims, Yokota is widely known for a photo of her in a navy blue school uniform standing under a row of cherry trees in full bloom. She never came home from badminton practice on Nov. 15, 1977, one day after giving her now 81-year-old father a comb on his birthday. A Japanese government website says she was confined in a dark compartment in a boat for nearly two days, crying “mother” and scratching the wall until her nails were nearly peeled off.

MISSING: Minoru Tanaka, Chinese restaurant employee

AGE WHEN ABDUCTED: 28

HIS STORY: Sent by Han Yon Dae, the owner of the restaurant he worked at, to Vienna in June 1978, Tanaka was never seen again. Han turned out to be a North Korea agent living in Japan. The case came to light after another agent told a Japanese magazine in 1996 that he had collaborated with Han and a third spy in Tanaka’s abduction.

MISSING: Yaeko Taguchi, bar hostess

AGE WHEN ABDUCTED: 22

HER STORY: Disappeared in Tokyo in June 1978, leaving behind a 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter. Years later, during the trial of North Korean agent Kim Hyon Hui for the bombing of a Korean Air flight in 1987, Kim said she was trained in Japanese language and culture by a woman who Japanese authorities believe was Taguchi.

THEIR STORY: Told their families on Aug. 12, 1978, they were driving to Fukiage Beach, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, to see the sunset. Two days later, Ichikawa’s car was found near a campground at the beach.

MISSING: Miyoshi Soga, homemaker

AGE WHEN ABDUCTED: 46

HER STORY: Disappeared with her 19-year-old daughter Hitomi after they went grocery shopping on Japan’s Sado Island on Aug. 12, 1978. North Korea later arranged Hitomi’s marriage to Charles Jenkins, an American army deserter who had crossed from South to North Korea in 1965. Hitomi was one of the five who returned to Japan in 2002. Jenkins and their two daughters followed two years later.

MISSING: Toru Ishioka and Kaoru Matsuki, college students

AGE WHEN ABDUCTED: 22 (Ishioka) and 26 (Matsuki)

THEIR STORY: Both men disappeared while in Madrid in May 1980. North Korea says Ishioka agreed to come after meeting in Spain with two wives of Japanese Red Army Faction radicals who had fled to North Korea after hijacking a Japan Airlines flight in 1970. A letter from Ishioka to his family in 1988 said he and Matsuki were in North Korea. Ishioka’s passport was used by North Korean agents, according to police.

MISSING: Tadaaki Hara, Chinese restaurant cook

AGE WHEN ABDUCTED: 43

HIS STORY: Taken out for drinks and dinner in Osaka by a group of North Korean spies in June 1980. They then took him by train to a beach resort in Kyushu, the southern island, and then by boat to North Korea. One of the spies, Shin Kwang Su, later traveled several times on a passport under Hara’s name, including to South Korea, according to Japanese police.

MISSING: Keiko Arimoto, college student studying in London

AGE WHEN ABDUCTED: 23

HER STORY: Disappeared while traveling in Europe in July 1983. Megumi Yao, another of the wives of the Japan Airlines hijackers, later told a Japanese court that she had approached Arimoto in London, and with the lure of a false job offer, arranged for her to meet one of the hijackers and a North Korean agent posing as a businessman or diplomat in Copenhagen. Yao, who had returned to Japan, was testifying at the trial of another of the wives.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.